Hey guys. For the past two summers, I've had an issue with these small flying insects in our house. Tonight, it's been worse than ever. There have been hundreds of them. I vacuum them up, and they just seem to come back. Here are the details:
The images are a little blurry (sorry) because I had to zoom 8x to be able to see it. They are pretty tiny. I have included an extra picture to show just how small they are. The bug is the black spot on the scotch tape. PS4 controller for scale.
These flying insects only come out at night around 11PM and start to go away around 3 or 4AM
They bounce around on the ceiling and have an affinity for corners on the ceiling
They are largely found in our dining room, living room, and sometimes our bedroom. They are never found in our kitchen/bathroom. So, to me, it looks like that rules out the possibility of drain flies.
I have tried all different gnat/fly traps (typically the vinegar based ones). These little guys don't want anything to do with them.
Very Small Flying Insects - Need Help Identifying
Possibly fungus gnats. If you have potted plants in the house, check for signs of overwatering; larvae of these flies thrive in waterlogged/very damp soils having a high organic content.
I have a wonderful find/suggestion I stumbled upon this fall.
Try crushed mosquito dunks with 10% BTI. Crush the dunks to as powdery as you can for better dissolved solution faster. While your soil is drying, mix the powder with water and let sit until the soil is neither wet or dry then water. Your gnat problem will be gone in 2 days.
BTI is said to kill the larvae only and prevent the adults from breeding. However, after 1 day I didn't see any living adults and the larvaes were dead after 2.
Fungus gnats are of the same family as mosquitoes and that is why it works so well for them. It is said to possibly help with black fly as well.
Umm - There are several different families of flies called fungus gnats - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungus_gnat, but none are in the mosquito family (Culicidae)...
Ok.
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